BALA, Ontario and TORONTO — A vehicle identified in multiple reports as Mayor Rob Ford’s black Cadillac Escalade remained impounded in cottage country Thursday, collateral damage in an alleged impaired driving incident that did not, according to police, involve the mayor — at least not directly.

Stripped of its plates, the truck sat penned behind a fence at Northland Towing and Recovery in Gravenhurst, in the heart of the Muskoka region. As nearby cottagers trickled in for the season and merchants readied their patios, reporters up from Toronto haunted the streets, trying to pin down the details of the latest twist in the Rob Ford saga.

On Tuesday, Bill Miller, the owner of a bait and tackle shop in the Muskoka Lakes was walking out of a general store on Muskoka Road 169 when a black Escalade pulled into the lot. A woman Mr. Miller recognized as Lee Anne McRobb a native of the area, stepped out.

“I remember thinking it was very unusual for Lee Anne to be driving an Escalade,” Mr. Miller said.

Before she was far from the vehicle, though, a police car turned into the same lot. An officer emerged and placed the woman under arrest. “I just happened to look back over,” Mr. Miller said. He said he overheard the officer tell the woman “she was doing 150 in an 80 zone.”

The Ontario Provincial Police later confirmed that Ms. McRobb had been arrested and charged with driving under the influence.

Mayor Ford has been spotted in the Muskoka region in recent weeks, popping up in photos and rumours online. In a video posted by a local radio station Wednesday, Ms. McRobb told reporters she had been a patient with Mayor Ford at GreeneStone, an addiction treatment centre in nearby Bala.

Constable Jessica Drake, with the Bracebridge OPP, would not say who owns the Cadillac. But in the videos posted Wednesday, Ms. McRobb said it belonged to Mayor Ford.

Const. Drake said police established that Ms. McRobb had permission to drive the vehicle. She could not, however, shed light on how the licence plates came to be removed. She said the Cadillac had plates on it when it was stopped by police, and they were still attached when it was towed. “We had no reason to remove it, once it gets to the impound yard, it becomes the towing company’s responsibility. I don’t even want to speculate how it got removed,” she said.

But Bob Hoolans, owner of Northland Towing and Recovery, said no one at his shop removed the plates. He said he didn’t even realize they were gone until reporters began to inquire about them as a way to confirm ownership. “We just tow, we’re a towing company, that’s all we do, it’s simple. We just pick it up, we do what we’re told, that’s it,” he said on Thursday in his lot, as reporters continued to trickle in.

Lindsay Sarrasin, Ms. McRobb’s sister, could not comment on how Lee Anne came to be behind the wheel of the mayor’s Cadillac or if she had been at GreeneStone. “She’s a good person, my sister. My best friend. She’s just mixed up in a little bit of trouble and hopefully we’ll get through this,” said Ms. Sarrasin. “Hopefully everything just goes quiet.”

Ms. McRobb’s family is well known in the area. Her parents own a cluster of rental cottages on Moon River. Ms. McRobb lives nearby with her young son.

On Thursday, neighbours identified Ms. McRobb’s modest aluminum-sided house in Bala, across from a fire hall and with a lake out back. A Sea Doo sat in the front yard and a blooming potted plant hung from the porch. No one answered the door, which was padlocked.

Wayne Weismiller, who lives on her street, said he hadn’t seen Ms. McRobb since he left for Mexico, in November. “To me, she’s a very genuine person. The odd time I’d meet her at the end of her driveway, when she’d bring her son at the end of the bus stop here and we’d chat for five minutes and she’d be on her way,” he said.

Ms. McRobb worked as a teller at the TD Bank in Bala until about six months ago, says Mr. Miller.

‘I think many of us have gotten beyond being surprised by the stories that revolve around the mayor’

Mr. Weismiller said he did not know if Ms. McRobb had been in rehab, but she had talked about giving up booze because she had a young son to raise. “I just didn’t think it would happen like this. I know she quit drinking a year ago January. And I didn’t know she was drinking again. I guess she was, by the sounds of it,” he said.

Mr. Hoolans, the owner of Northland Towing and Recovery said no one but Ms. McRobb has come to inquire about the Cadillac. The towing company said she displayed proper ID on Wednesday and allowed her to retrieve personal belongings from the vehicle. “She had a duffle bag and a couple of other bags. She had knitting,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t even know who’s car this is. Until the guy shows up next week, we haven’t got a clue.”

Reached by phone early in the day, Doug Ford maintained he had no information about what had transpired. He said he had been unable to reach Mayor Ford on the phone. He said the mayor still plans to return to the campaign trial, but could not say when he would be back in Toronto. “We’re going to have to wait and see. As far as I know he’s going to run for re-election,” he said.

Back in Toronto, Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly continued to wear the “unofficial hat” of mayor, kicking off this weekend’s Doors Open at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre complex. He knew nothing of the cottage country escapades except what he had read in the news. “I think many of us have gotten beyond being surprised by the stories that revolve around the mayor,” said Mr. Kelly.

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